P4Z-0hy22ZRyqh5IUeLwjcY3L_M

Saturday, January 31, 2015

SAO PAULO – A 50-year-old American was murdered and his body buried alongside a highway, apparently as a settling of scores linked to prostitution in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazilian police said Friday.

U.S. citizen David Benjamin Sommer went missing last Jan. 11 in the Liberdade neighborhood of downtown Sao Paulo and a pimp, 28, was arrested as a suspect in the case, the daily Globo said.

According to police, who identified the U.S. citizen as a company executive, was a regular at a brothel in the city of Sao Paulo and seems to have had an argument with a prostitute, apparently a girlfriend of the pimp.

The same sources said that the American, who had frequent relations with the brothel’s prostitutes, was beaten up in a room by the killer and given two injections of a sleep-inducing drug.

The accused, according to investigators, rented a commercial refrigerator, stuffed Sommer’s body inside it and then took it in a van to Inmigrantes Highway in Greater Sao Paulo, where he buried it.

Dogs of the Sao Paulo police helped track the American to the brothel, after which, according to the Homicide Division, the accused confessed where he buried the victim, who had lived in Brazil for nine years

A 53-year-old man who claims to be a Pastor, has been arrested by the Police in Nsukka, Enugu State, for allegedly impregnating married women and young girls in his church.

The Pastor, identified as Timothy Ngwu, is the General Overseer of Holy Trinity Ministry popularly called Vineyard Ministry in Umudikwere Community in the University town. Ironically, police sources said the suspect claims he was directed by the Holy Spirit to sexually abuse female members of his church in the name of God.

How he was exposed

Crime Guard gathered that the alleged sexual exploits of the self-acclaimed man of God was blown open by his estranged wife, Veronica Ngwu, who hails from Udi Local Government Area in Enugu State.

The wife who has three children for the pastor was reportedly not comfortable with the ugly development and she lodged a complaint at the Anti-Child Trafficking Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department, CID, Enugu.This led to the arrest of the pastor.

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/sacrilege-pastor-impregnates-married-women-daughters-says-god-directs/#sthash.1QyRHYmu.dpuf

In a tit-for-tat reaction to the Basij harassment and intimidation of youth, a group of young men took revenge by destroying motorcycles belonging to the Basij agents who had gone inside a mosque for taking part in a gathering. They already knew that those motorcycles belong to the Basijis who are attending a meeting of Basij force quit possibly for planning to use their bikes for further intimidation and harassments of people and young people for self-interpreted Islamic codes of clothing. Notably, this action by the youth was supported by the local residents.

Saudi blogger Badawi, a fighter for free speech

Saudi Arabian blogger Raef Badawi, who could face another round of flogging on Friday for "insulting Islam", is a fighter for free speech whose health is worsening, his wife says.

His sentence of 1,000 lashes has drawn worldwide outrage and been dismissed as "cruel and inhuman" by UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

The first 50 lashes of his sentence were carried out in public on January 9.

Badawi, born on January 13, 1984, is the father of two girls aged 11 and seven with his wife Ensaf Haidar, his teenage sweetheart.

They married in 2001 and also have a 10-year-old son.

"Raef is very, very respectful. A very tender father. He is an amazing man," Haidar told AFP from Quebec, Canada, where she and the children have sought asylum.

The clean-shaven 31-year-old Badawi, who loves to read, studied economics and ran an English-language and computer learning institute, his wife said.

But he found his calling as a writer, focusing on free speech.

"He wanted dialogue among people. He wanted free speech and rights for women and all human beings. This is what always motivated him" and is why he created the Saudi Liberal Network, Haidar said.

Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described the Internet site which Badawi co-founded as "an online discussion network whose aim is to encourage political, religious and social debates in Saudi Arabia".

RSF last year named Badawi one of three winners of its press freedom prize.

- 'Day of liberalism' -

He was in jail at the time, serving a 10-year sentence following his June, 2012 arrest under cybercrime provisions.

A judge ordered the website shut down after it criticised Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police.

BUENOS AIRES – The only DNA found on the gun that killed Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman belonged to the deceased, the person directing the investigation said Friday.

Nisman was found fatally shot on Jan. 18, hours before he was supposed to brief Argentina’s Congress about his accusations that President Cristina Fernandez and other officials sought to conceal the involvement of Iran in a deadly 1994 terrorist attack targeting a Jewish organization in Buenos Aires.

The prosecutor died of a single shot to the temple, fired at point-blank range from a .22-caliber pistol that was found under his body in the bathroom of his apartment.

Nisman, who had a 10-person police security detail, borrowed the gun from a colleague.

Laboratory analysis determined “categorically” that all of the DNA found on the gun, ammunition cartridge, bullets and shell-casings belonged to Nisman, prosecutor Viviana Fein said Friday in a statement.

At the time of his death, Nisman was seeking to indict Fernandez, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and five other people in connection with his probe of the car-bomb attack that left 85 dead at the offices of the Jewish organization AMIA.

Investigators have labeled the case a “suspicious death.”

Fein said her office’s technical staff have informed her that the stairways of Nisman’s apartment building do not have security cameras, while the camera mounted in the elevator was out of service the day of the prosecutor’s death.

She said she took statements on Friday from the people who manage the computer network in the office of the special prosecutor for the AMIA case.

Nisman, 51, was laid to rest Thursday at a Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

The Argentine government rejected on Friday a U.S. lawmaker’s call for an international enquiry into Nisman’s death.

Argentina “is an autonomous and independent country,” Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich said during his daily press briefing, calling Sen. Marco Rubio’s proposal the expression of an “imperial vision” that “ignores the principal of national self-determination.”

Rubio, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, sent a letter Thursday to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, saying that he was “deeply concerned about the ability of the government of Argentina to conduct a fair and impartial investigation.”

The senator’s call for an international investigation is an “unwarranted intrusion appropriate to an imperial attitude that represents the most recalcitrant Republican right,” Capitanich said.

The charges against Fernandez and Timerman were based on intercepts of telephone conversations about efforts “to erase Iran from the AMIA case,” Nisman’s office said Jan. 14 in a statement.

The government wanted to eliminate any obstacle to forging closer trade and economic ties with Tehran, the prosecutor said.

Timerman – himself a member of Argentina’s Jewish community – reacted angrily to the accusations, labeling Nisman a liar and saying that the prosecutor allowed himself to be unduly influenced by Jaime Stiuso, recently fired as chief of operations for the intelligence service.

Many in the Argentine Jewish community believe the AMIA bombing was ordered by Iran and carried out by Tehran’s Hezbollah allies.

Both the Iranian government and the Lebanese militia group deny any involvement and some have pointed out that the accusation relies heavily on information provided by the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency, both with an interest in blackening the reputation of Tehran.

To the indignation of many, both in Argentina and abroad, prosecutors have yet to secure a single conviction in the case.

In September 2004, 22 people accused in the bombing were acquitted after a process plagued with delays, irregularities and tales of witnesses’ being paid for their testimony.

The attack against the AMIA building was the second terrorist strike against Jewish targets in Argentina. In March 1992, a car bomb was detonated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people and wounding more than 100 others

Chadian soldiers have smoked out the Boko Haram insurgents out of Malumfatori town in north-eastern Nigeria, a top security source said.

One of our correspondents gathered on Thursday that the recapture of the town, which lies near the borders of Chad and Niger, followed two days of fighting between the insurgents and the soldiers.

Both ground and air forces are reported to have been used in the assault.

It was learnt that the Chadian soldiers moved into the town which was earlier seized by the Boko Haram sect after crossing Lake Chad. It is not known if the operation was approved by Nigeria.

However, the Nigerian military confirmed that the town had been recaptured but said that the feat was performed by soldiers from the Multinational Task involved in the ongoing operation against the insurgents in the North-East.

A woman, Mrs. Grace Okpara, has reported to the police that she was allegedly tortured by her bosses, who are Lebanon nationals.

Our correspondent gathered that Grace worked as a cleaner at a logistics company in Ibafo, Ogun State, where the Lebanese couple - Joseph and Hala Yasbek - were members of the management.

It was learnt that on Wednesday, January 14, Grace, who claimed she was dragged on the ground by her bosses during an argument, reported the matter at the Ibafo Police Division.

Speaking with PUNCH Metro, 37-year-old Grace who hails from Ishan, Edo State, said she was assaulted for alleged dereliction of duty.

She said, "I work as a cleaner at the Lebanese company, and I earn N20,000 as salary. The incident happened on January 14 at about 11.30am. We were three working as cleaners in the company.

"That day, Hala said I did not clean the premises very well, but as I tried to explain, she kicked me and I fell. Minutes later when the husband showed up, I reported Hala to him, but he also slapped me.

"I fell ill after the incident and went to the hospital for treatment. I was treated at a private hospital in Ibafo. I was discharged on Thursday and then went to report to the police. The fee for my treatment was paid by the police at Ibafo."

Grace's husband, Uzoma, said they had also reported the matter to the National Human Rights Commission.

LAS VEGAS: A Saudi Arabian air force sergeant who arrived in Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve two years ago may never get to leave Nevada after being sentenced Wednesday to a minimum of 35 years in state prison for kidnapping and sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy at a Las Vegas Strip hotel.Mazen Alotaibi, 25, stared at the courtroom floor as the boy’s mother sobbed that her son’s life was ruined and Judge Stefany Miley imposed the mandatory sentence for sexual assault with a minor under the age of 14.Alotaibi didn’t testify at trial in October 2013, and he didn’t speak Wednesday. With time already served, he will be 57 before he is first eligible for parole.“This idea that you can come in here and ... do the things you want and then you get to leave, and ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’ is wrong,” prosecutor Jacqueline Bluth said. “That’s all about show. It’s not real life.”Defense attorney Dominic Gentile said he intends to appeal Alotaibi’s conviction and sentence.Gentile, a prominent Nevada criminal defense and constitutional lawyer and adjunct law school professor, said he’ll also argue that world events made it impossible for Alotaibi to get a fair trial.“Mazen Alotaibi is an Arab Muslim,” Gentile said. “I don’t believe he can get a fair trial in America today because of overwhelming bias and prejudice.”The Associated Press is withholding the boy and his mother’s name to avoid identifying a victim of a sex crime. The boy is now 15 and lives with his family in California.Alotaibi came to the US for military training at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas.Bluth acknowledged the boy made a bad decision to seek marijuana from Alotaibi as they passed in a Circus Circus hotel hallway shortly after dawn Dec. 31, 2012.The boy testified at trial that he was lured by the smelled of pot smoke.Bluth said Wednesday that Alotaibi was lured by Las Vegas’ marketing as Sin City, and recklessly capitalized on the boy’s decision.Alotaibi’s trial lawyer, Don Chairez, later maintained that the boy traded sex for the promise of marijuana. But Nevada state law says a child under 16 can’t consent to sex.Gentile lost a bid to get the judge to reconsider Alotaibi’s conviction on grounds that Alotaibi was too drunk to know he was committing a crime.The defense attorney said he intends to appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court for a new trial, arguing that Alotaibi was badly represented by Chairez.Reached by telephone, Chairez defended his work as “excellent.” He said he also discussed appeal strategy with Gentile.“For Mr. Alotaibi’s sake, I hope this is one of the grounds that will be successful and the court grants him a new trial,” Chairez said.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

BUENOS AIRES – The Argentine government again discredited the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s accusation that President Cristina Fernandez provided cover for the suspected Iranian perpetrators of the 1994 attack on the Jewish organization AMIA, and said it will end up “in the garbage can.”

“He couldn’t have written such a thing. Reading the text he sent his friends, he talks about making the accusation of his life. No one could call that pathetic complaint the accusation of his life,” the secretary general of the presidency, Anibal Fernandez, told reporters.

Fernandez once again raised doubts about who really wrote the accusation and seemed convinced that “it will end as it must: in the garbage can,” in a statement made at the seat of the Argentine government.

The official also defended the publication of information about journalist Damian Pachter, the first to report Nisman’s death, and how he fled the country fearing for his life.

“Article 10 of the Personal Data Law clearly says that personal information may be made public by judicial decision and when based on reasons founded on public concerns. This is one such case. We see unfounded fear and make the information public in the best possible way,” Fernandez said.

Nisman was found dead from a shot in the head on the night of Jan. 18. He was scheduled to appear in Congress the next day to explain in detail his accusation against the Argentine president, Exterior Minister Hector Timerman and several ruling party leaders, for presumably orchestrating a plan to protect the Iranians suspected of attacking the Jewish organization AMIA in 1994, which left 85 people dead.

MORELIA, Mexico – The former local chief of Mexico’s conservative National Action Party in this western city was gunned down in front of his home, the Michoacan state police said.

Eduardo Flores Vizcaino, a prominent developer, headed the Morelia office of the party, known by the acronym PAN, from 2005-2007.

He was fatally shot when he emerged from his residence, located about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the Michoacan statehouse, where officials were outlining a new strategy to apprehend the leader of the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel, Servando “La Tuta” Gomez Martinez.

The state chairman of the PAN, Miguel Angel Chavez Zavala, demanded that authorities track down and punish the authors of the “regrettable deed.”

“With this case there are 10 National Action officials and leaders who have been victims of the state of violence and insecurity that Michoacan is experiencing,” the PAN said in a statement.

Mexico’s No. 2 public official, Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chang, announced last week that President Enrique Peña Nieto had decided to eliminate the post of federal commissioner for security and development in Michoacan.

He shared the news during a public hearing in Morelia to review the strategy the federal government has followed since intervening in Michoacan a year ago amid conflict between organized crime and vigilante groups.

The federal intervention in Michoacan met with some success initially, including the arrest of leading figures in the Templarios cartel and the incorporation of many of the vigilantes into an army-controlled Rural Force.

But violence flared in the state again last month, when 11 people died in an incident involving rival factions of the Rural Force.

Returning from Saudi Arabia, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain told CNBC on Wednesday he’s most concerned about the threat posed by Iran. 'There’s a delusion that somehow we’re going to have an agreement with Iran ... [and] that we’ll all be working together,' the Arizona Republican said in a 'Squawk Box' interview. 'Iranians are on the march in the Mideast.' McCain said the Saudis 'perceive a lack of strong American leadership,' as Iran gains significant influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. McCain joined the president and other bipartisan U.S. dignitaries in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to pay respects to the late King Abdullah and to meet the new leader of the oil-rich nation, King Salman. The leadership transition is going smoothly, and Salman’s rule will be 'in keeping the Saudi policies' toward the U.S. and the region, McCain said. 'The Saudis are more frightened, and I’m more concerned about the rise of ISIS [Islamic State militants] and even more about the incursions by Iran in different countries,' he added.McCain offered solutions to these growing threats. 'We should arm the Free Syrian Army. We should have more American boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria in the form of forward air controllers, intelligence capabilities, [and] special forces.' He said the U.S. needs to understand that Iraq and Syria are not different conflicts.

Female protestors began gathering in downtown Cairo Thursday afternoon demanding an investigation into the deaths of activist Shaimaa Sabbagh and others who they say were killed by Egyptian security forces around the anniversary of the 2011 uprising.

The protestors gathered at the site of Sabbagh's death near Cairo's Tahrir Square, chanting "The interior ministry are thugs!" and holding signs with the word "Murderer" scrawled over Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim's face.

About 100 had gathered at the time the demonstration was meant to start at 2.00 pm local time, and protesters appeared to be avoiding blocking the streets by gathering on the sidew

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Source: Reuters, (Translated from French)The Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (PMOI/MEK), a movement of exiled opponents of the mullahs in power in Iran, Monday warned Western countries against any alliance with Iran in the fight against the Islamic state (Daech) .

Shiite Iran is not involved in the coalition formed in the US initiative to combat the Sunni jihadists of IS in Iraq and Syria, but provides military support to Shiite regimes in Damascus and Baghdad.

"The participation of the regime (Tehran) in the coalition against Daech is a hundred times more dangerous than any Islamic fundamentalism under the guise of Shiism or Sunnism," said the president of the PMOI, Maryam Rajavi, at a hearing organized by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

While international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program resume in early February, she described as "simplistic" the idea that greater involvement of Iran in Iraq would cause the regime abandon its nuclear weapons.

"When the mullahs have more open hand in Iraq, they will not give up the bomb," said Maryam Rajavi.

"Fundamentalist" Shi'a power in place since 1979 in Iran is not the solution, she said, but they are the cause of Sunni fundamentalism.

"If there was not this cruel repression of Sunnis in Iraq and Syria by the Iranian regime and its allies and puppet governments Daech would have had no fertile ground for its development," she said.

PMOI that says is defending a secular and democratic conception of Islam, believes that in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism passes through the immediate overthrow of the Iranian regime and in the short run by its eviction from Syria and Iraq.

Translated for Borderland Beat from a Notinfomex article by Otis B Fly-Wheel

He was identified as Venancio Soberanis Pantoja , a youngster who was thrown to crocodiles in Larazo Cardenas, after being tortured and executed.

The body was on the point of being completely devoured by the crocodiles in the Santa Anna bar. However tourists and locals reported the situation to authorities , then elements of civil protection among others , attended the site and managed to snatch the body from the jaws of the reptiles.

The situation occurred around Midday just at the height of the bridge of Santa Ana , in the Boulevard of the Municipality of Lazaro Cardenas. The police suspect the killer or killers threw the body off the viaduct , and subsequently the reptiles ate his left leg.( Otis : id say that is his right leg )

Local officials , Military and bystanders fashioned a noose to recover the victim from the grasp of the reptiles, who hours later was identified as Venancio Soberanis Pantoja, 20 years of age , it was noted that his hands were tied behind his back with yellow cord , and his head had severe injuries.

The Iranian regime has missiles that can reach 1,800 miles, making the regime a 'world threat' whether they are nuclear or not, Ali Safavi, member of Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran told Newsmax TV.

Ali Safavi said: "With or without a ballistic missile, the Iranian regime remains from my view the number one in strategic threat, not only in regional countries, but also to the national security of the United States.

"When you talk about the agenda of the U.S. president, the focus has to be on the growing threat coming from Tehran."

He added: "You have to look at the situation in perspective. For the past 35 years, and particularly in recent years, as the Iranian regime has become more isolated, the problem with the Syrian regime, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere in the region is that the Iranian regime has continued to sponsor terror and has continued to finance terrorist groups.

"They spent billions of dollars helping Bashar Assad, up to $2 billion a month. They are helping to keep Assad in power and have been training and financing Shiite militants in Iraq and in Yemen, where Iranian trained, financed and armed rebels have taken over that country.

"The threat of Iran as a terrorist sponsoring regime is very real and the danger is thinking that if we are nice to them, they'll be nice to us. The Iranian regime and its leaders are bad actors in the region, and this calls for decisive and firm policy on the part of the US administration."

SANTIAGO – Chilean President Michelle Bachelet expressed her regrets Friday for the murder of two Carabineros – members of Chile’s militarized police – in a possible clash with livestock thieves this Thursday in the area they were patrolling near the Peruvian border, according to the deputy secretary of the interior, Mahmud Aleuy.

“We very sorrowfully learned of the death of these Carabineros while on duty guarding the security of our land. We very much regret their passing,” the president said at the signing of a bill that will toughen penalties for crimes of great social significance.

Bachelet said the bill “is a tribute to people who, like these murdered Carabineros, give their lives so we can live in peace.”

Aleuy also referred to the death of the two officers of the Carabineros and said that the “most reasonable” hypothesis up to now is that the killing was a result of a “clash with rustlers,” since there have been reports of vicunas being stolen in the area of the killings.

Though the motive of the murders is still unknown, the suspicion is growing that they were related to “the trafficking of vicunas on the nation’s border,” the prosecutor of Arica and Parinacota, Carlos Eltit, said in a statement on Radio ADN.

According to Aleuy, the only possibility discarded up to now is that the slaying of the Carabineros, who were patrolling the highway between Visviri and Tacora in Parinacota province, came as the result of a clash with uniformed Peruvian personnel.

Starting this Thursday, a special squad of the Peruvian National Police has been carrying out search operations on the Peruvian side of the border with Chile to try and find the killers of the two police officers and investigate the circumstances of their deaths.

The bodies of the two Carabineros were found this Thursday, after the officers failed to return from a patrol mission in the Chilluma sector, at some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Peruvian border.

DENVER – Dozens of relatives and friends of Jessica Hernandez, 16, who was shot to death by local police earlier this week, on Tuesday marched to demand that charges be filed against the two officers involved in the incident, saying that the teen’s death was “unnecessary.”

After the march to the offices of the Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, the members of the so-called Community Defense Committee of Denver asked in a petition that authorities investigate the circumstances surrounding the girl’s Monday morning death in one of the city’s northeastern neighborhoods.

At a Monday afternoon press conference, Denver police chief Robert White acknowledged that the two officers used their weapons, that each fired several shots and that “there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.”

The incident began when a police officer on patrol noticed the presence of a suspicious vehicle. The car’s license plate enabled the officer to determine that it had been stolen Sunday night, whereupon backup was requested.

When a second patrol car arrived, both officers tried to get the vehicle’s driver – Hernandez – to stop but, they said, she accelerated, hitting and injuring the leg of one of the men.

The officers opened fire, focusing their shots on Hernandez. The other four occupants of the vehicle, apparently all minors, were uninjured.

Via a communique released on the social networks, the Community Defense Committee said that Hernandez was “unarmed” when she was killed and asked for a firm stance against police violence.

According to the committee, the investigation should focus on a videotape, apparently recorded by a resident after the shooting, in which a handcuffed girl can be seen being questioned by police. But the girl seems not to be responding to the police.

The committee wants to know whether the girl in the video is Hernandez and whether she was already dead when the images were taken.

As in normal procedure in such cases, the two officers have been placed on “administrative leave” while the investigation is under way, a probe being conducted by the police, the district attorney and the Office of the Independent Monitor, a civilian oversight agency for the city.

This is the third incident in less than a year in which local police have killed young Hispanics inside vehicles.

NCRI - The Supreme Court in Iran has confirmed the sentences of eight social media activists in Iran who have been sentenced to a total of 133 years in prison for criticizing the regime on Facebook, according to reports received from Iran.

The activists had been originally charged with “colluding and gathering against national security, propaganda activities against the system, insulting sacred symbols, insulting the head of the government branches and insulting specific individuals.”

It is unclear whether the activists who have been arrested in various cities including Tehran, Yazd, Kerman, Shiraz and Abadan were acting together.

Roya Saberi Negad Nobakht, 47 year Iranian British woman, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, was arrested in the south-western city of Shiraz while visiting friends in the city of Shiraz.

The oldest is a 62-year old women and the youngest is 21-year-old man. The ruling by the high court is not clear in each individual sentencing terms but it is believed that they are sentenced between 8 to 21 years in prison.

They were originally arrested around the end of summer 2013 by the cyber police in Iran.

The official news agency IRNA then reported: ““Two of them were sentenced to 18 years and 91 days and 19 years and 91 days in prison respectively, with 50 lashes and fines of 1.3 million tomans ($500). Others in this case were sentenced to 21, 14, 20, 8, 11 and 16 years in prison.”

The Iranian regime’s Cyber Police are responsible for monitoring cyber activities. Their most notorious case was that of blogger Sattar Beheshti whom they killed in custody.

While social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are banned in Iran, some Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, have Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Cuba and the United States held on Wednesday "respectful dialogue" on migration issues, but both countries still maintain their conflicting views on the validity of the Cuban Adjustment Act and politics "feet dry / wet feet" UStoward the island.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Latin America at the State Department, Alex Lee, told a press conference that the US"Is fully prepared to keep the Cuban Adjustment Act," which "will continue to guide" theimmigration policy of his country to the island.

That law, in force since 1966, with its "feet dry / wet feet" favors Cubans who manage to reach American territory that allows to apply for permanent residence one year later;while those intercepted at sea are returned to Cuba.

For its part, the general director for USAMinistry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Josefina Vidal, rejected the permanence of that law, which they consider "the main incentive to illegal migration and trafficking in persons to the United States."

The Cuban diplomat explained that the Adjustment Act "gives Cubans preferential, exclusive and unique treatment" in regulating the situation in the United States, which according to her is causing an "increase in document fraud with intent entering the US. "

Vidal also said the policy "feet dry / wet feet" "encourages Cuban health professionals to abandon their missions in third countries", which he considered a "reprehensible practice of brain drain (...) that goes against the migration agreements. "

Despite these differences, both Vidal and Lee highlighted the "climate of respect" and "constructive spirit" in which the discussions took place, in which both countries reiterated their commitment to a "legal, safe and orderly migration" , purpose of the agreements for a migration dialogue signed in 1994 after the episode of the "rafters crisis".

Cuba acknowledged that the United States "is complying with the migration agreements regarding the granting of no less than 20,000 visas a year to Cuban immigrants," and that there has been an increase in visas to Cubans for temporary visits.

The parties also agreed to expand cooperation against illegal migration and continue holding regular workshops like those that have occurred between the US Coast Guard servicesand border guards troops in Cuba.

They also agreed to perform soon, but date to be determined, one of these technical meetings on document fraud, advanced Vidal.

The US representative reported that also addressed at the meeting other issues such as family reunification programs or the return of "excludable" Cuban residents in the USthat the Government of that country wants to "return to the island," mainly because there have violated the law.

The migration talks today are the first contact between delegations of the two countries since they announced the restoration of diplomatic relations last December 17;although this new round of migration dialogue was convened for months.

However, the parties used the meeting to start tomorrow the first official negotiations on the normalization of diplomatic ties, meetings will be headed by Secretary of State for Latin America, Roberta Jacobson, the most senior US official to visit Castro's Cuba.